Host Seth Meyers kicked off the Emmys with riffs on some of the year’s best television shows and the show’s move to Monday.
“This year we’re doing the Emmys on a Monday night in August, which if I understand television, means the Emmys are about to be canceled,” Meyers said.
He said that the move was partly to avoid competing with the MTV Video Music Awards, which aired Sunday.
“That’s right, MTV still has an awards show for music videos, even though they no longer show music videos,” Meyers said. “That’s like network TV holding an awards show and giving all of the trophies to cable and Netflix. That would be crazy. Why would they do that?”
Meyers also touched on the controversy over which categories certain shows were submitted in — most notably Orange Is the New Black‘s inclusion in the comedy category.
“We had comedies that made you laugh, and comedies that made you cry, because they were dramas submitted as comedies,” Meyers said.
Meyers also mocked the controversial ending to CBS’ How I Met Your Mother, noting that he never expected it to be more depressing than the goodbyes for Showtime’s Dexter and AMC’s Breaking Bad.
“That’s right, kids. Jesse Pinkman lived, Dexter lived, but your mother didn’t make it. Sleep tight!” Meyers said.
Meyers went on to praise the wisdom of shows like Game of Thrones for killing off its main character in season one. “Otherwise, before you know it, you’re paying Sheldon $1 million per episode.” He went on to admit The Big Bang Theory‘s Jim Parsons (Sheldon) was worth every penny.
Ahead of the show, Meyers told The Hollywood Reporter he’d enlisted writers from Late Night and Saturday Night Live‘s “Weekend Update” to help him with his Emmys jokes. In addition to emceeing the awards ceremony, Meyers is a writing nominee for this year’s Golden Globe Awards, which were hosted by his pals Tina Fey and Amy Poehler.
Click here to see the best and worst moments from Monday night’s ceremony.
A complete list of winners can be found here.
Email: Aaron.Couch@THR.com
Twitter: @AaronCouch
Aug. 25, 5:31 p.m. Updated with video.
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